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A32 FEATURE
Wednesday 14 June 2017
New frontier in cancer care: Turning blood into living drugs

LAURAN NEERGAARD to treat cancer — if scien- kemia and lymphoma.
AP Medical Writer tists can make it work, safe- “There’s a desperate
SEATTLE (AP) — Ken She- ly. Early-stage studies are need,” said NCI immuno-
fveland’s body was swol- stirring hope as one-time in- therapy pioneer Dr. Ste-
len with cancer, treatment fusions of supercharged im- ven Rosenberg, pointing to
after treatment failing un- mune cells help a remark- queries from hundreds of
til doctors gambled on a able number of patients patients for studies that ac-
radical approach: They with intractable leukemia cept only a few.
removed some of his im- or lymphoma. For all the excitement,
mune cells, engineered “It shows the unbelievable there are formidable chal-
them into cancer assassins power of your immune sys- lenges.
and unleashed them into tem,” said Dr. David Malo- Scientists still are unravel-
his bloodstream. ney, Fred Hutch’s medical ing why these living cancer
Immune therapy is the hot- director for cellular immu- drugs work for some peo-
test trend in cancer care notherapy who treated ple and not others.
and this is its next frontier — In this photo taken March 29, 2017, cell production associate Shefveland with a type Doctors must learn to man-
creating “living drugs” that Herley Beyene places containers of immune cells in a centri- called CAR-T cells. age potentially life-threat-
grow inside the body into fuge at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. “We’re talking, really, pa- ening side effects from an
an army that seeks and Associated Press tients who have no other overstimulated immune
destroys tumors. Research Center couldn’t ful is that?” said Shefveland options, and we’re see- system. Also concerning is
Looking in the mirror, She- find any signs of lymphoma with a wide grin, giving ing tumors and leukemias a small number of deaths
fveland saw “the cancer in the Vancouver, Wash- his physician a quick em- disappear over weeks,” from brain swelling, an un-
was just melting away.” A ington, man’s body. brace. added immunotherapy sci- explained complication
month later doctors at the “Today I find out I’m in full This experimental therapy entific director Dr. Stanley that forced another com-
Fred Hutchinson Cancer remission — how wonder- marks an entirely new way Riddell. But, “there’s still lots pany, Juno Therapeutics,
to learn.” to halt development of
T cells are key immune one CAR-T in its pipeline;
system soldiers. But can- Kite recently reported a
cer can be hard for them death, too.
to spot, and can put the And, made from scratch
brakes on an immune at- for every patient using their
tack. Today’s popular im- own blood, this is one of
munotherapy drugs called the most customized thera-
“checkpoint inhibitors” re- pies ever and could cost
lease one brake so nearby hundreds of thousands of
T cells can strike. The new dollars.“It’s a Model A Ford
cellular immunotherapy and we need a Lamborghi-
approach aims to be more ni,” said CAR-T researcher
potent: Give patients stron- Dr. Renier Brentjens of New
ger T cells to begin with. York’s Memorial Sloan Ket-
Currently available only tering Cancer Center,
in studies at major cancer which, like Hutch, has a
centers, the first CAR-T cell partnership with Juno.In
therapies for a few blood Seattle, Fred Hutch offered
cancers could hit the mar- a behind-the-scenes peek
ket later this year. The Food at research underway to
and Drug Administration is tackle those challenges. At
evaluating one version de- a recently opened immu-
veloped by the University of notherapy clinic, scientists
Pennsylvania and licensed are taking newly designed
to Novartis, and another T cells from the lab to the
created by the National patient and back again
Cancer Institute and li- to tease out what works
censed to Kite Pharma. best.“We can essentially
CAR-T therapy “feels very make a cell do things it
much like it’s ready for wasn’t programmed to do
prime time” for advanced naturally,” explained im-
blood cancers, said Dr. munology chief Dr. Philip
Nick Haining of the Dana- Greenberg. “Your imagina-
Farber Cancer Institute and tion can run wild with how
Broad Institute of MIT and you can engineer cells to
Harvard, who isn’t involved function better.”
in the development. TWO LONG WEEKS TO BREW
Now scientists are tackling A DOSE
a tougher next step, what The first step is much like
Haining calls “the acid donating blood. When
test”: Making T cells target leukemia patient Claude
far more common cancers Bannick entered a Hutch
— solid tumors like lung, CAR-T study in 2014, nurses
breast or brain cancer. hooked him to a machine
Cancer kills about 600,000 that filtered out his white
Americans a year, includ- blood cells, including the T
ing nearly 45,000 from leu- cells. q